58
TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014
“We’re still recouping,” Stienecker
admits, adding that the company is
doing this by always staying open to
diversifying. In the case of the lost
RYO business, convenience items like
beer, wine and lottery were also brought
in recently as an added survival tactic.
“We set our business above-bar and
believe that 90 percent of why we’re still
in business is our customer service, our
merchandising and our marketing—
finding life in existing categories and
new ones,” says Stienecker.
Like Butt Hut of America, Cox’s
Smokers
Outlet
in
Louisville,
Kentucky enjoyed the big-guns,
large RYO machine business “while
it lasted,” according to Bill Grantz,
owner and operator. “We had them in
about six [of 18] stores and it was a
very good money-maker for us because
we offered something that nobody else
in those areas offered. We became a
destination for RYO.”
And when it went away, Cox’s quickly
adjusted to the patterns its customers
took on. A majority did switch to
rolling at home with tabletop machines
and tobacco, and the chain amped up
selection and customer service.
But it also noticed that some of its
big machine RYO tobacco customers
then turned to filtered cigars when the
machines went away as an alternative
to paying the outrageous prices of a
regular carton of cigarettes. Again,
Cox’s adjusted with product selection,
recognizing that “we never really lost
that big machine RYO customer, they
just went a different route,” according
to Grantz.
But the trick to truly recouping the
lost RYO business is to stay open to
new opportunities all around, believes
Grantz. The traditional RYO tobacco
